Who is leading the protest? Generation Z, or grade Zh?

By Kreshnik Spahiu

Dritëro Agolli once wrote: “A day will come when we watch the duel between the generations raised on a slice of bread smeared with sugar and the generations they call ‘the potato chip generation.'”

The “Flamingo” Revolution, if it held any value beyond the partisan, lay in the civic and youthful face that dominated the protest: girls and boys in their twenties, untouched by politics.

That is why the revolution was named for Generation Z, since the average age of its participants did not pass thirty.

So why, all at once, were leadership and representation entrusted to a handful of figures so unlike the crowd in age, schooling, and upbringing?

Why did the twenty-year-olds choose men of fifty and sixty?
Why did those with Western degrees choose figures who never finished high school?
Why was perfume replaced by sweat?
Why was the peaceful, Gandhian offering replaced by ideas of “bullets” and Avni Rustemi?
I, unlike some others, believe Dritan Goxhaj is a patriot and a fighter for the national cause; but Generation Z, with its twenty-year-olds, cannot be represented by Dritan. It must produce its new elites from the universities of the West, not from the old military school of Albanian communism.

So many old felt caps rising to the head of the protest stand in strange contrast to the beauty of the charming girls and the likeable students in the square.

Did the old wolves take the protest from them, or did the agencies?

Within twenty-four hours, the protest made three moves against the United States:

It chose a spokesman openly declared to be anti-American.
Several protesters complained of pressure from the U.S. Embassy.
It called for a protest on July 4, American Independence Day.
In politics, there is no such thing as coincidence three times in a single day.

In fact, the world’s media (CNN, BBC, ZDF, RAI, RTL, Reuters, The New York Times, AFP, DW) carry a similar headline: “Albania, the anti-Trump protest.”

Do not read only Rama or Balla; read the thousands of newspapers and broadcasters of West and East. All of them treat it as an anti-American protest. Only the Albanian media kiosks say: “Rama to prison, Berisha to prison.”

But even if the foreign media are speculating, why do the protesters not issue an official clarification: “The protest is not against Trump”? Just as they put out statements clarifying matters about Dritan Goxhaj, let them clarify the anti-American or pro-American discourse as well.

There is, in truth, nothing wrong with being against America; what is wrong is wearing two faces, both for and against.

The square shrinks by the day, not from police violence, not from tear gas, not from the water cannons of the fire trucks, but from popular disillusionment.

We all awaited the leader of the flamingos as the face of the next prime minister who would govern Albania; but sadly, the beautiful youth of Generation Z was pushed aside and replaced by generation Zh.

Sadly, the people hoped for much: not only the departure of the Rama and Berisha duo, but also the arrival of an educated Generation Z. And sadly, all will be disappointed, for Rama and Berisha are emerging as the winners.

Yesterday, strangely, in their list of demands they forgot Zvërnec, the very reason they took to the streets. Do not be surprised if next week they forget Rama and Berisha too, just as they forgot Zvërnec.

Perhaps the “potato chip” generation is losing its war against the generation that once smeared sugar on its bread.